Friday, November 21, 2014

WARNING:

Pictures get pretty big in this. Just right click them and select "View Image" if somehow the Blog formatting messes with it. My apologies in advance.

This kind of shit always gets me. Especially when it's the kind of stuff that'll not get noticed because the game isn't popular enough anymore anyway. Who cares, right?

Well, I do. Beyond the above mentioned fact, it's still a practice we shouldn't condone.

I don't have a following that'll form a witch hunt for me, but god damn I just like writing these things down like they're official as f*ck.

Alienware has struck up a deal with Overkill. Using Payday 2 to push their new Console/PC lovechild into popularity. If you have no idea what the purpose or idea is behind those kinds of things, just Google 'Steam Machines'. You'll get a fair idea what these things are.

If you sign up for one of these, you'll get two free helmets. No biggie, really. The first one looks kind of silly but the second one seems to be pretty neat. Nice job, Overkill. You know how to design a proper badass helmet. Credit where credit is due.

This was their 'Day 2' reward. Overkill likes to hype up their content updates using 'Days'. Much like their Mission system when a heist involves more than one map.

Day 3 has a hammer that is "free for everyone". Allow me to post the important part of it below.

I mean, that's pretty neat, right? All you have to do is sign on an account with Alienware, unless you already have one. That's cool, I've done deals like that before. Sign on an account, presto, you got your goodies, time to forget all about that website again. (admit it, at least 65% of you are like that too)

Well, the Alienware website sure doesn't stray far away from the story as well!

Wow, I can use my Steam Account to directly log in? Man, it just doesn't get any better than this, right?

Ahuh...

NOPE

Oh ho ho... I'm sorry, you thought you would get the key right away like we told you on both websites? Hahahaha oh wow that's silly... Why would we ever give out an unlimited number of codes of an infinitly copyable piece of code? Please... don't be silly...

Now be a good sheep and stand in line for your treat.

No, actually, I get it. You can't give these out infinitely. At some point some nefarious people will grab a huge load of these and spread them around and possibly tax whatever servers 1% more in the end.

I feel like it's nitpicking on their part and security for a pointless measure, but it's a company police I can respect.

What I don't respect is how there was no word, no SIGN of there being a queue. I'm pretty sure there must be some fine print somewhere, hidden away obscurely just so they can say "Nu-uh, we did say it!". But guess what, this isn't a blog about Politics or Legal stuff, this is one where a customer is feeling like he's being f*cked around with.

In the end, it may not have mattered. It seems too few people care anymore about Payday 2 to even want this. I got my code in 5 minutes. Yay, whoop dee doo...

I simply felt alarmed at this practice. This is exactly what I mean when transparency is far to be found.

Overkill, instead of wanting to deal with a possibly reduced response from their Users/Customers/Fanbase/YouNameIt and be honest and transparent, opted instead to obscure this little detail to ensure utmost 'hype'.

And that little detail, being willing to obscure even a smidget of truth, is what breeds bad practices.

Overkill, don't go there. I know you guys may not be the sharpest tool in the game dev shed, but pay attention. This is the kind of stuff your fanbase may remember, for I certainly will.

Post Scriptum:

Also, here's another thing I absolutely hate companies for doing.

Who the f*ck are these people? Do they even exist? I have sunk many hours into Payday 2 as well and I can guarantee you that grinding missions will really turn into a bore when you're trying to angle for your third Infamous level.

I don't like comparing people to brainless, mentally defunct humans or zombies, but.... sh*t, we're kinda making it hard not to.

And
with the DeathWish update, grinding the same mission (by far the most
efficient and least boring way) to level up fast is now actively
punished, giving you diminishing returns.

Great, thanks for that. Now I feel even more punished for ever playing this game legit.